This article explains how Team Inbox admins can setup automatic chat assignment for their users.

This article explains how Team Inbox admins can setup automatic chat assignment for their users.

You can also watch the video tutorials here on how to setup this feature:

* [English tutorial](https://youtu.be/fxSEEHrNNQI)
* [Tutorial em português](https://youtu.be/NAFIuH5ikHY)
* [Tutorial en español](https://youtu.be/u7D4dVJOkMU)

## What is automatic chat assignment?

Automatic chat assignment refers to the process by which the Bot will automatically assign newly opened chats directly to a Team Inbox user belonging to the team to which the chat is assigned.

The Bot will check for the team members that are online (available) at that point in time and assign a new chat to each member one by one, in a round-robin manner.


:::info
This feature is only available for Business plan users

:::

## How to setup the automatic assignment

There are 2 ways in which automatic assignment can be setup in Wati.

### 1) Via Default Action


1. Go to Automations > Default actions
2. Scroll to the bottom and select the setting "Assign newly opened chats in round robin manner within users of the assigned team"
3. Click on Save settings

 ![](https://brainfish-storage-prod.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/8ce9edeb-6728-4e9a-aea1-2080a897fd28/6c36c3a9-ff22-45e3-b61c-5127a2c4f943/rr-settin.gif?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAUPPN5IL3QLQZLDSU%2F20250509%2Fus-east-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250509T023926Z&X-Amz-Expires=3000&X-Amz-Signature=f54df9ad750113cb5d8bf45d2b84fe85da797a7524b507c3ca761cc19784cc14&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=attachment)

### **How it works**

* Let's assume a new chat has been started by a customer. In this case, the chat gets assigned to the Default team.
* When the automatic assignment setting is turned on, the chat will get assigned to any of the online members of the Default team, instead of getting assigned to the Bot.
* Then the next incoming chat will be assigned to the next team member, ensuring that each team member gets covered one by one.
* Similarly, if you have setup a Keyword Action to route an incoming chat to a particular team, the automatic assignment setting will assign the incoming chat to an online member of the team.

 ![](https://brainfish-storage-prod.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/8ce9edeb-6728-4e9a-aea1-2080a897fd28/c4056235-9c17-4a14-94d6-060fc4bb401a/image.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAUPPN5IL3QLQZLDSU%2F20250509%2Fus-east-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250509T023926Z&X-Amz-Expires=3000&X-Amz-Signature=e0b2a5f4f24c11c6a67e0f4b4c0b141e8df4614be5cb7420ddc2fcec31e6ff33&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=attachment " =538x538")

Below are some detailed scenarios explaining the outcome when the setting if OFF v/s when is it ON

| **Chat status** | **Other automation rules for assignment** | **Current behavior (round robin setting is OFF)** | **Expected behavior (round robin setting is ON)** |
|----|----|----|----|
| Open *When a customer initiates a conversation (UIC)* | None | Agent: Bot | Agent: Specific team member as per round robin logic |
|    |    | Team: Default team | Team: Default team |
| Broadcast > Open *When a customer replies to a broadcast message* | None | Agent: Bot | Agent: Specific team member as per round robin logic |
|    |    | Team: Same as the team assigned when the broadcast was sent | Team: Same as the team assigned when the broadcast was sent |
| Expired > Open *When a customer initiates a message on an expired chat* | None | Agent: Bot | Agent: Specific team member as per round robin logic |
|    |    | Team: Last assigned team, when ticket was in expired status, is maintained | Team: Same as the team assigned when the chat expired |
| Solved > Open (within 24 hours and after 24 hours as well) *When customer initiates a message to a solved chat* | None | Agent: Bot | Agent: Specific team member as per round robin logic |
|    |    | Team: Last assigned team, when ticket was in solved status, is maintained | Team: Same as the team assigned when the chat was solved |
| Open | “Assign team” routing set under keyword match | Agent: Bot | Agent: Specific team member as per round robin logic |
|    |    | Team: As defined in the automation rule | Team: As defined in automation rule |

### 2) Via Chatbots

If you are setting up chatbot flows to handle and route your incoming chats, you can choose to enable or disable automatic chat assignment everytime you assign the chat to a team.


1. Go to Automations > Chatbots
2. Select any existing chatbot flow or create a new flow
3. Select the Assign Team node and customize it
4. Choose the Round Robin option and select the team to whom the chat needs to be assigned to
5. Click on save
6. Add other components of the flow and save the flow

 ![](https://brainfish-storage-prod.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/8ce9edeb-6728-4e9a-aea1-2080a897fd28/c1285193-8114-4742-b0af-58f2590bc88a/migrated?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAUPPN5IL3QLQZLDSU%2F20250509%2Fus-east-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250509T023926Z&X-Amz-Expires=3000&X-Amz-Signature=4e41b6fc79b720503c34cb5f92d2e8810594bd04850341d18aedea9714f32151&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=attachment)

### **How it works**

* When the automation flow is in progress and the chat is assigned to a team as configured in the flow, the chat will also get automatically assigned to a member of the team if the round-robin option was chosen
* If the option to skip offline users was unchecked in the chatbot flow, then the chat assignment will also happen to members that are offline
* When you keep the assignment type as “Direct”, it will only assign the chat to the team/s specified and NOT automatically assign it to a member of that team (same as the current logic for assign teams)


:::info
This chatbot setting works independently of the setting explained in 1) above. Both of them can be configured together or without each other.

:::

### Important points and other limitations

* Automatic chat assignment will only work for chats that are assigned to a single team. Chats assigned to multiple teams will be ignored and will not be assigned to agents directly.
* Only agents whose status is “Available” will be assigned chats in round robin, unless a user specifies to assign to “Offline” agents via the chatbot flows.
* Automatic chat assignment will happen within the specified Working Hours only and when Holiday Mode is OFF.
* A user with role = “Admin” is excluded from the round robin assignment. Only users containing the role of “Operator” will be considered when assigning chats.
* If a chatbot gets triggered or any keyword is detected that triggers an automation response, that will get precedence over the automatic chat assignment to agent
* If the setting “**Expired or Closed chat will not be assigned to Bot but leave the last assignee in case of new message**” is turned ON, then this setting will take precedence over round-robin and such chats will remain assigned to the last assigned user when the chat gets re-opened
* This assignment logic does not impact Pending chats getting re-opened before they expire.
* This logic will not work when a team is manually assigned to a chat. It is meant to work only for default team assignments or those done through automation.


:::info
Check out [this video](https://www.loom.com/share/d6597ff25ac14b73982fa0e3a5551044?sid=bf10c709-38fc-472c-90ca-df28d6ef2962) for some practical examples on how this feature can be used.

:::

### How Round Robin setting works with other automation rules

As we have seen above, Round Robin assignment is a setting which is available as a Default Action. This section describes how this setting will work if it is used in a combination with other Default Action settings

| **Default Action setting which is ON** | **Expected behaviour, if Round Robin default action is also ON** |
|----|----|
| When it is not working hours, reply the following | "When it is not working hours, reply the following" setting will get triggered as expected whereas Round Robin assignment will not work as it is out of working hours |
| When there is no customer service online during working hours, reply the following | "When there is no customer service online during working hours, reply the following" setting will get triggered as expected whereas Round Robin assignment will not work as it only assigns chats to agents that are online |
| Send the following welcome message when a new chat is started and no keyword search criteria is met | "Send the following welcome message when a new chat is started and no keyword search criteria is met" setting will get triggered as expected |
|    | • For all cases where this setting triggers a chatbot or a sequence, Round Robin assignment will not happen as the chat is assigned to Bot. |
|    | • For all cases where the this setting triggers a text, document, image, template, sticker and/or video, Round Robin assignment will happen after the message is sent as per this setting |
| During working hours, users wait more than ---minutes without any reply and no keyword matched, reply the following | Round Robin setting will get higher priority here and chat assignment to operator shall happen as soon as chat is opened. |
|    | For recently opened chats which are still assigned to a bot if Round Robin conditions were not met, this setting can be triggered after the time (x mins) defined |
| Send the following fallback message if no keyword search criteria is met and no default action criteria is met. | "Send the following fallback message if no keyword search criteria is met and no default action criteria is met " setting will get triggered as expected |
|    | • For all cases where this setting triggers a chatbot or a sequence, Round Robin assignment will not happen as the chat is assigned to Bot. |
|    | • For all cases where the this setting triggers a text, document, image, template, sticker and/or video, Round Robin assignment will happen after the message is sent as per this setting |
| If customer does not respond and it's not SOLVED, when it almost reaches 24 hours since last message, use the following reply | This setting has no interference with Round Robin setting and will work independantly of it |
| Expired or Closed chat will not be assigned to Bot but leave the last assignee in case of new message | If the setting “Expired or Closed chat will not be assigned to Bot but leave the last assignee in case of new message” is turned ON, then this setting will take precedence over Round Robin and such chats will remain assigned to the last assigned user when the chat gets re-opened, even if the Round Robin setting is ON |
| During out of office, send out of office message always (even if a keyword match is found). | "During out of office, send out of office message always (even if a keyword match is found)" setting will get triggered as expected whereas Round Robin assignment will not work as it is out of working hours |




Automatic chat assignment (Round Robin assignment)

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